queensland redcliffe popper session( no fish landed)

[kevinchen19870316]

after trying out the mouth of brisbane river and shorncliffe jetty, me and one of my friend hit the rock wall next to the redcliffe jetty at 11 this morning.

tide had already been pretty low and i could see all the oyster beds. first cast into the oyster bed and i got snagged before any action's implemented to my sp. second cast, same...

well, i tried to cast by the oyster bed and got some bites from bream, no hook ups. thinking all the fish should be in the oyster bed, with the water low around 50-70cm deep, i rigged a megabait popper and make a brave ( of course, no worries of getting snagged) cast into the black area. around 10 to 15 twitches, something hit the popper! honestly, i just used the popper to kill some time as i couldn;t figure out any other ways to keep not getting snagged.

missing the first chance, i didn;t get a hit till i move to another oyester bed. a good long cast and after 1m of retrieving, a small splash of the water right behind the popper gave me the confidence. a long but a bit thin fish followed and bite the popper all the way till the lure;s quite close to the bank. it was around 70cm long and 10cm wide, black back.

a few casts later, the fish finally nailed my popper and i hit as soon as the popper disappeared. line peeled off my nearly locked baitcaster immediately and i could see a big fish darting to my right hand side with an unbelievale speed. only 2-3 seconds later, the fish's gone with my owner cultiva triple damaged.

no luck anymore after i lost the fish. we decided to leave when the water's dead low. but just as we pack up, i could see some big fish, hopefully tuna smashing baitfish 300m away from the bank. the huge splashes and quantity of the fish surprised me. there were like 4-8 splashes at a time and the fish r estimately over 10lb. that was like a offshore scene i have seen on vedios and it was all right in front of my eyes hundreds of meters from shore! the water there were at most 3-4meteres judging from the color and the surface;s smooth.

the scene lasts till we drove away for over 10 mins.

any one got any clues what sort of fish i hooked? it followed my lure at a extremely speed and dart off like a rocket. it didnlt give spectaculer bites like pike but it;s definitely over 70cm.

Post edited by: kevinchen19870316, at: 2007/08/30 19:36

[pinkey]

sounds like a fun session even tho u didnt land anything..

when i was reading that i was thinking pike but You never know it could of even been a Giant herring.. Talking about darting of like a rocket they often take around 150meters of line in 10 seconds and they are long and thin and grow over 1.2meters.. I have always dreamed of catching one .

[Mack_attack]

did you get a look at the shape of its head by any chance? probably not very likely but if it had a round head maybe a small cobia.

[kevinchen19870316]

yeah, it's head is not sharp like a pike that's why i am sure it's not a pike or a makerel.

by the way it slowly follow the lure, i mean , it swims like a big swim bait, with the whole body twisted...

it can be a giant herring which i thought of as the biggest possibility. i will be back soon and catch one when the tide is right. should be this sunday.

[Cowfish13]

Tailor, Tarpon (Ox-eye Herring)

[Plastic Fantastic]

maybe a large long tom? speaking of giant herring, i caught one on a SP 100m downstream of colleges crossing on the brisy river measuring approx 40cm :laugh: love them fish :cheer:

but yea id either a tarpon, giant herring or longtom...thou tarpon almost certainely jump when hooked :S

[Oztrav]

might of been 1.75 metre cobia

[pinkey]

hey plastic fantastic do you think the giant herring neer colleges was a fluke? or is there a steady population there? How did she fight?

[reef_raider]

would have been tuna, a few weeks ago a guy was telling us at shorncliffe peir about tuna the day before about 100m out from the end so they must still be around there

[Cowfish13]

In Kingfisher Bay (Fraser island, west side) off the jetty, we saw these guys just casting out and geting mackeral and tuna strikes. Big Tuna as well. So they are definatly brave enough to go close in to shore. It was only a small jetty. 80m max.

[pcsolutionman]

out off bribie we have seen them only 40M off the beach.

Lee

[kevinchen19870316]

landbased tuna?

i would set my new project to a daiwa surf caster, ha ha.

[blue_mako]

The fish taking your popper would have definately been a Long Tom. Hard to hook, especially on top water and are calm and cool when it comes to eating.

They will quickly race over to anything that moves, sus it out and if they think it's food they will eat it. If they don't think it's food, they will still eat it.

I have chased them on poppers and slugs before at Manly and they usually just stalk the lure until it sits still. There mouth is boney so u really need to give a short sharp jerk to set the hooks, but you still miss them often. Once you hook them more often then not they will do the whole Marlin wannabee jumping which usually ends up in thrown hooks. So they are a hard fish to land but very good fun.

You were using BC tackle right? When you are getting all those snags you need to go down in jighead size. 1/40th or unweighted 90 degree offset hooks are the go. That's when you need a light spin out fit. That type of fishing is common in Bream comps, that is shallow water, rocky/snaggy bottom and extremely slow sinking lures. You can often sight cast fish in those conditions providing you have good polarised sunnies and the surface is relatively calm.

Troy

[kevinchen19870316]

sorry but the fish hitting my popper cannot be a long tom. i have seen it around 10m in front of me and they have the body shape of a milkfish, just a little bit fatter than makerel. it's round shaped mouth gave me the impression of a grinner but i think grinner should explode at my lure, not just follow and give little bites.

yeah, i wish i had a spinner gear at the time, ha ha. i could see the bream in the oyester bed but the heavy jig head need much more speed to keep clean of the snaggs.

[kevinchen19870316]

sorry but the fish hitting my popper cannot be a long tom. i have seen it around 10m in front of me and they have the body shape of a milkfish, just a little bit fatter than makerel. it's round shaped mouth gave me the impression of a grinner but i think grinner should explode at my lure, not just follow and give little bites.

yeah, i wish i had a spinner gear at the time, ha ha. i could see the bream in the oyester bed but the heavy jig head need much more speed to keep clean of the snaggs.

[Plastic Fantastic]

no idea about the giant herring population sorry, but i wouldnt say it was a fluke, i mean theres always heaps and heaps of tarpon up that way during the summer so its entirely possible giant herring travel up with them?

but yea twas a good fight, lotsa jumping :laugh:

[pinkey]

Sweet might have to go up there to flick for a few tarpon and maybe the odd GH in summer